(1) Field of the Invention
This invention provides an apparatus and method for cleaning conveyor tables used in commercial applications. The cleaning apparatus is intended for cleaning and sanitizing conveyor belts used in supermarkets and other retail outlets. The apparatus reduces cross-contamination of food products, and has minimal maintenance requirements. This novel cleaning apparatus is mountable on existing conveyor tables currently used in supermarkets, and includes a self-cleaning feature of the conveyor belt using disposable towels that reduces downtime and improves worker productivity. The cleaning apparatus can be intermittently started and stopped and can also be operated during check-out to avoid customer inconvenience.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Conveyor tables are used extensively at check-out counters in supermarkets and other retail store outlets. A variety of products such as food products are usually placed on a conveyor. During customer check-out leakage and spillage can cross-contaminate other products, particularly food products. Large retail outlets also sell goods such as insecticides, automotive oil products, garden products and the like that can further contaminate other products and possibly endanger public health. Generally it is the responsibility of the check-out clerk to ensure that the conveyor table is manually cleaned periodically. This requires applying a detergent and/or antibacterial solution and removing the contaminated materials, such as by hand cleaning using a paper towel. These frequent cleanings result in lost productivity and more importantly may not result in thorough cleaning and sanitizing of the conveyor belt. During rush hours when customer traffic is high, it is difficult to consistently maintain a clean conveyor belt.
Several methods for cleaning a conveyor belt have been reported in the literature. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,243 to King a pneumatically controlled system is used to replace an electrically controlled cleaning system. The system is designed to apply a cleaning solution with a rinse cycle through a series of nozzles positioned between the belts and have a multiple of zones. The process can be repeated using timers. The invention is intended to reduce the amount of labor to service the equipment and the amount of cleaning compound needed to clean the conveyor belt for the food and packaging industry. Another apparatus and method for cleaning conveyor belts is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,594 to Kootsouradis in which a number of embodiments are described for a cleaning apparatus. A plurality of belt treatment apparatus having spray nozzles are used to apply a treatment fluid to the belt as the belt passes through the cleaning chambers while entrance and exit diverts are used to contain the cleaning fluids. The apparatus and method do not address the cleaning procedure for cleaning the chambers. In still another patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,302, conveyor cleaning assemblies are described in which cleaning brushes and scrapers are used to remove debris such as occurs in food manufacturing. The brushes are designed for easy cleaning which appears to be an independent cleaning step.
The above apparatus and methods appear to require a separate cleaning procedure which will result in extra maintenance cost and reduced productivity. Further, the cost and complexity of installing the cleaning apparatus appears to be significant. Therefore there is still a strong need in the consumer service industry for a self-cleaning conveyor apparatus with easily replaced cleaning parts and which requires minimal downtime. The cleaning apparatus should also be mountable on existing conveyor tables with minimal time and cost.